It’s that time again, for a round up of foraged links, fresh from the Pagan internets!

Matthew Martin, a Shinto Druid who writes at A Fox of Inari, has an excellent post about Walking Prayer, which reminds me of the importance of “informal” prayer, in communion with nature:

Walking on the grass, next to the trees, in the farmers fields and by the small streams is absorbing and cleansing the kegare which has been stuck to my being lately. Praying to Inari-Okamisama and the local gods outside has been energizing for me – walking outside and seeing what I am truly grateful in front of me has helped a lot. It’s one thing for me to stand in front of the kamidana and thank kamisama for the nice weather and it’s another to actually be outside in said weather.

Over at the Atheopaganism blog, Mark Green writes about Authenticity, both in our Paganism and in our relationships with each other:

I envision a world in which we can be true with one another about the things that matter. In which we need not mask ourselves. And we can start in our own communities, with one another.

Authenticity is the greatest gift we can give to one another: the honest truth of our experience. It takes courage, and it takes trust.

If we can build trust amongst ourselves, we can find that courage.

If we can assume kindness as the core intention of one another, we can bridge the great gulf that lays between us.

Yvonne Aburrow at Dowsing for Divinity explores Sex, Gender and Deities; asking do the deitites have gender? Defining deitites as “the identities or personalities of places, lands, natural phenomena, and cosmic forces” (a view close to, but not quite the same as, my own), Yvonne questions to what extent deities can be said to have anthropomorphic characteristics, including sex and gender:

Gender is your identity and there are literally hundreds, even thousands, of different gender identities. There are deities all over the map when it comes to gender identity.

Deities, who are social beings, or at least their anthropomorphic aspects are, can express any of these myriad different gender identities, sometimes more than one at a time, sometimes none.

An older post, but new to me at least. Morgan Daimler at Irish-American Witchcraft on Patheos discusses being an effective ally to marginalised groups: So you Want to be an Ally.

There are going to be some very specific things to consider if you want to be an ally to a specific group, depending on that exact group’s needs – there are some good guidelines out there on being an ally to LGBTQIA people, transpeople, people of color, or women for example. Keep in mind as well that being an ally to one group doesn’t automatically make you an ally to another, or mean you understand the dynamics or nuances of that other group. Different groups have different needs and expectations to consider.

And finally, the pioneers of “Amplified History”, Heilung, have released the first new track from their upcoming album, and it is sublime: